Lapping your CPU

Intro

IHS or Integrated Heat Spreader is the visible top of a CPU that features the prints for
processor type and manufacturing date. Usually this copper plate is more or less crooked when the
processor leaves the factory and this leads to a bad contact between the CPU and the cooler. This,
again, causes the CPU core temperature to rise with any cooler. This is the issue that the CPU
lapping tries to overcome. In this article we'll show you updated instructions to lapping your heat
spreader. Original
article from 2001 still contains valid information but we felt that the more modern CPU in
demonstration could convince people to do this mod even today. CPU we will be using this time is an
Intel E6750.

Materials

The first step is to get all the necessary supplies. For the operation you'll need various grits
of wet sanding paper, a flat surface (mirror, glass, or such), some water, the CPU itself and let us not
forget one of the most important part - lots of patience.

Three grits of sand papers are used for the lapping: 400, 600 and 1200. The sand papers cost a
total of 4,20€. and if you aren't familiar with the sand papers then the lower number (lower
grit) indicates more coarse surface. Grain gets finer when the number goes up.

Preparations

Before starting the sanding it's worth covering the processor, for this I used the black ESD cover
that originally came with the CPU and some masking tape.